Zee (fall_of_rain) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2012-10-10 20:17:00 |
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Entry tags: | dorian gray, meg giry |
Who: Zee and Hunter
What: Pre-"date" kissy face
Where: Their apartment
When: The other day
Warnings/Rating: Smooshy feelings! Short and sweet.
Talking to Hunter on the journals was sometimes strange, but it ended up making Zee smile, especially when they were both in a good enough mood to make comments at each other that Zee could only think of as flirting. He liked it. It made him feel like pushing and being stubborn was maybe the right thing to do after all. And it seemed (at least to him) that this time the pushing had led to a date. He didn’t want to call it that, not out loud and not in writing, afraid that that might be pushing it too much and tempting fate to throw something awful their way, but plans for a movie and maybe dinner definitely qualified as a date in his book. And when talk about those sort of plans was followed up by what seemed like a pretty damn forward comment from Hunter? Even having to deal with the mess of worry that was Jules and Loren couldn’t quite bring down Zee’s mood.
Hunter’s truck was still (as far as Zee knew) dead and at the ranch, so Zee’s beat-up car was the only way to get them both to the east side of town and to the budget cinema. The last appointment, the one he’d thought would take about two hours, actually only took an hour and a half, so he was a little early and feeling good when he pulled up to the apartment building. Keys loose in his hand, he made his way to what he was quickly starting to think of as “their” apartment, and unlocked the door. “H? You ready to go, baby?”
Hunter had refused to go to the hospital even when his wrist continued to swell, but eventually the ice and the rest had managed to take the sprain down to a reasonable level. He was wearing a brace he must have picked up at some backlot drug store, and the tan stretch cloth and a tube of antiseptic ointment were Hunter’s only nod to any injury at all. He was still working part-time (or, perhaps, full hours under the table) at the ranch, and therefore hadn’t qualified for health insurance even if he’d thought to ask for it. More to his dismay, however, they told him he couldn’t work with one hand even to his protests, and every day that passed he felt that the pick-up hours he was missing at the Excalibur were opportunities lost.
The result was a Hunter restless with inaction. He had not yet scraped up the money to bring the old truck back to Zee’s apartment, and he felt it sour in his stomach whenever Zee paid for something and he had to just sit. Despite this unsettling situation, Hunter was in a better mood than he ever had been before. The sudden physicality of their relationship, however brief, made him feel more secure in his existence in Zee’s space, and in Hunter’s mind it was less likely that Something would happen that might lead to a second separation.
Hunter appeared from the kitchen, bound arm loose at a slimmed jean hip and his free hand balancing two cans of pop as he approached. He stopped closer than he used to, fully close enough to smell the antiseptic Zee and the other artists used at his shop. A brown lacquer gaze flickered up and down over Zee’s state, and Hunter smiled a smile that was almost shy. “Near enough. Thirsty?” He held out the two silver cylinders, one between first finger and thumb, the other braced on the other three fingers.
Zee had broken into a smile when Hunter appeared, and the grin sat easy on his face, refusing to quite leave even when a worried wrinkle worked its way between his eyebrows. He stepped forward and took both cans from Hunter, grin slipping into something warm and fond with a voice to match. “Tryin’ to carry too much again. I’m worried about playing Russian Roulette with one you might’ve dropped.” It was a tease as he reached over to set the cans on the convenient table near the door. The shy curl to Hunter’s smile was too tempting to ignore, and with fingers that held the cold condensation from the cans, he reached in to tip up Hunter’s chin, careful of the scrape still along his jaw. “Have a good day?” he managed to ask, but didn’t leave enough space for an answer before he was leaning down the few inches to find Hunter’s mouth with his own.
It was just as warm as his smile and voice had been, careful of injuries and not pushing too hard. Zee knew that sitting around couldn’t have been easy, knew that he’d be going crazy with it, and he never did quite as much as Hunter seemed to. He didn’t really know what else he could do to help, but he was hoping that at least getting out of the apartment would help. He just had to stop kissing Hunter first.
Hunter didn’t have time to think of an answer, because he couldn’t remember how his day had been while Zee was that close, looking at him just that way. He made a sound of intermediate thought, but it came out of his closed lips in a soft vibration and a second later it wasn’t there at all. The kiss was immediate, and Hunter pursued it with pleasure and not that unthinking desperation that crept up on him when he was unhappy. Three cold points of fingertip pressed into Zee’s back into the lowest spot Hunter could find that wasn’t jean and Hunter set his lower lip under Zee’s to slide even closer in every way he could manage that wasn’t interrupted by clothing. The kiss lasted for several seconds before Hunter started to push: the fingers grew warm and drew pressure lines lower, and the soft lips gained a hard edge. Halfway through he said something vague like good that didn’t have enough consonants to make a full sentence.
Zee's kiss slowly moved into a smile, pressed in a curve against Hunter's mouth. He may not have been entirely positive what was going through Hunter's head on any given day, but he could tell the difference in the kisses. It let him enjoy them even more, not feeling like he had to prove something to Hunter. The cold touch to his back caused a sharp shift to the side, trying to avoid the frigid points, but then he was laughing for just a moment before the kiss was changing on him. He'd forgotten his earlier question, so Hunter's attempt at a response was ignored in favor of bringing both his hands up, slipping along the sides of Hunter's neck, his thumbs both tracing down over adam's apple before resting lightly in the dip at the hollow of Hunter's throat. Fingertips along the vertebrae of Hunter's neck, the position could have turned threatening in the flutter of a blink, but it stayed light, careful, cradling bones and breath like the precious things they were. It didn't stop the kiss from going deeper though, followed by a please rumble of sound.
As a child, Hunter had always been too quick to let “dad” get him by the neck, and it was all purrs as Zee’s hand slid against the tiny prickling hairs on the top of his spine. He didn’t mind Zee’s hands wherever they went, because he knew it was Zee, just the touch of him, the touch against him. Hunter gave a quick, teasing curl of his tongue and then he pulled away, lips red and soft. “How was yours?” Hunter brushed his nose under Zee’s chin and then settled his free palm against the other man’s hip. The bleached lashes spread briefly against Zee’s cheek before Hunter pulled away and relaxed bonelessly against Zee’s weight, a habit he was growing fond of.
Zee couldn't think of any name for the sound that Hunter made other than purring, and it made Zee respond with another low content sound of his own. He chased the kiss when Hunter pulled back, curling his spine forward until he heard the question. He took a minute to blink at Hunter, pushing words around in his mind as his thumbs traced another up and down along a neck that was just rasped with stubble. He took Hunter's weight easily, growing to enjoy the new habit as well, and finally grinned. "You gonna laugh at me if I say it got better since I walked in the door?" The question was quiet enough to be little more than a pleased hint of sound.
“Yes,” Hunter said, grinning widely. He showed teeth just under the soft upper lip, intentionally, it seemed, because he stretched up and scraped them across Zee’s mouth again once he was in reach. His rough, braced hand went high to settle on Zee’s shoulder where he could manage it without dropping his hand. “You can say it, though. Sounds nice.” Hunter’s journal was planted deep in his back pocket, and as he turned his hip it brushed against Zee’s thigh. “Goin’ nuts here all by myself, doing nothing,” Hunter said, conversationally.
"Better since I walked i-" Zee's words were cut off by the scrape of Hunter's teeth, and whatever he was going to say got lost as he leaned in to take another kiss. He kept his own teeth to himself, but only because Hunter's next comment reminded him that they'd had plans. He couldn't quite keep himself from tucking his fingers between the book in Hunter's pocket, and the warm denim between it and skin, though he didn't try very hard to resist. "Coulda come to the shop if you wanted," he offered as a solution. "An' we can go out now 'f you want." His voice had slipped into an easy, warm slur, and his expression stayed soft as he looked down to meet Hunter's eyes.
Hunter let the kiss go on as long as he liked, but he took his weight on his legs again and off Zee’s hips. He let his bad arm slide off Zee’s shoulder again, leaving just a hint of cool fingertips before he did. “I don’t belong in your shop,” Hunter said, not unkindly, and for once, without bitterness. “It’s your place.” Hunter had about two inches of fingers outside of the brace, and he used it now to scrape soft hair off his forehead. He took a breath in and let it out. “Can’t decide if I want to go out or go in. You confusing things. Maybe we go out of here and go into a dark movie theater, huh?” This time the smile wasn’t near as shy. The book in his pocket had a sharp edge, a ballpoint with a cap stuck in the middle, stretching the binding.
Zee couldn’t help the almost sad smile that he gave Hunter. He was right though. While Zee had liked having him there, it was obvious that he wasn’t meant to be there on any sort of regular schedule. Not to mention how distracted Zee would likely get at work if he had Hunter there all the time. “Doesn’t stop me from wantin’ you there, H,” he replied, but his tone obviously said that he knew that Hunter was right. His eyes traced the sweep of Hunter’s hair and then let out a laugh. “Only fair, baby. Can’t decide if I should let you out the door or keep you here.” His eyes darkened at the mention of a dark movie theater though, and Hunter’s smile earned one in return. “Yeah? You think that’s a good idea?” He took a minute to think about it. It was still early enough in the day to avoid any sort of after-work moviegoers. The middle of the week. A budget cinema. Yeah, he couldn't find much fault with Hunter’s idea. He leaned in, lips warm at the curve of Hunter’s ear. “Get your shit together then, so I can take you out.” The whisper was laced with the same sort of unshy promise as Hunter’s smile, and his fingers curled into the soft denim behind the sharp-cornered book before drawing back with reluctance to let Hunter go.
Somewhat flush with the attention, Hunter drew away, abandoning the pop cans to Zee and again pushing his hair out of his face with the braced hand. A tattered brown leather wallet was awkwardly shoved into the pocket that didn’t hold the journal, something that took some maneuvering with only one hand to manage both items. He had to abandon the cigarette pack so on the counter (not enough pocket space) so he shook one out and put it in the corner of his mouth before moving back toward Zee and the door. He was eager to get out, like a foal at the barn door, and even if the apartment felt safe, there was only so many times he could take Fluff around the block. They’d obviously gone several times, because she barely bothered to get to her feet when it looked like the two of them were headed outside. He told her to stay and it looked like a nap was imminent.
Once they were out in the dying sunlight, Hunter slipped Zee a sideways look as he settled close to him, almost hip to hip. He didn’t actually entwine any limbs, but the shadow position made things somewhat clear. He wanted to ask if Zee had talked to Jules on the journals, but he wasn’t sure he really wanted an answer, so he just lit the cigarette and rubbed at his eyebrow with one thumb on the way down the stairs.
Zee watched the entire process with a little grin and gave the dog his own goodbye before slipping out the door behind Hunter and locking the door behind them. The overlapping shadows were telling enough, but they merged even more when Zee reached over and rested a hand on Hunter’s back. It wasn’t far to the car, but it didn’t take long for slim fingers to edge their way into the waistband of worn denim. It wasn’t anything indecent, especially not in the orange of the desert sunset, but just enough that he could find something warm and smooth beneath his fingertips. With the touch, his smile deepened, secret and pleased, and he nudged Hunter toward the car with another grin.